Featured Writing

Take a break and read something new.

The newly launched weekly writing prompts are designed for you, by world renowned authors and poets. Your creative writing responses are accepted weekly and posted every Monday.

Tell the true story that you don’t want your mother to read. You know the one. Don’t censor yourself.

Remove your shoes or hold out your hand and write a new piece that celebrates your hand or foot. 

Make a list of ten images of things you have seen in the last 24 hours. Use all of them in a new piece of writing. 

Find a favorite recipe. Now write a piece inspired or in the style of that recipe about a family secret–yours or someone else’s. 

Write a letter to you in a different time. It could be written to last year’s you, 5-year-old you, or the you who has just turned 100-years-old. 

Write from found materials. Find a book nearby, a magazine, or a newspaper article and circle some words on a selected page. Aim to find writing unlike your own. If you are writing poetry, hunt down a Popular Mechanic magazine or a letter to the editor. These words and phrases will help kick off a piece of new writing. 🔨

Your own life has inspired a movie. Write the opening or closing scenes adding details like characters, setting, and dialogue. 🎥

Write an ode to a friend, praising the subject in all their glory. Do not use the word “I” at all. ☕️

Write about a poem about a superhero coming to your house and confronting you about something. Somewhere in the poem, you have to state what your superpower is. 🪂

Mary Shartle’s “May you live in interesting times.” Recently we are experiencing extraordinary times in the United States and globally. Pick a time of major crisis in your life. Write about how you found peace, either in solitude or in community during that time. 🕰

Find and choose a book near you. Challenge yourself by writing using only words found in the first and last sentences of each chapter. 👓

Marilyn McCabe’s What I Can’t Throw Away: Describe that thing you just can’t Marie-Kondo out of your life. It may not exactly bring you joy, but…you just can’t let it go. Describe it so clearly we can all see it. Give it voice. Tell your story through it. 🎒

Choose a major historical event. Write from the perspective of an unexpected witness to the event. 🕵️‍♀️

Chris Tebbetts’ Choose from one of these three first lines: 1) All I know is this: 2) It was dark in the car. 3) The rain came down like…. Now, write a passage or scene that only includes words of four letters or less. It can be frustrating at first, but if you stick with it, you will likely find a rhythm, and might be surprised at what you come up with. 🚗

Write about getting a DNA test just for fun, but learn some surprising news in the results, and the aftermath of those results. 🧬 Creative Writing Responses

Lauren Whitehead’s Everything in the world feels so big and overwhelming right now. At least that’s how it feels for me. So I might suggest that we try to write into the opposite of that feeling. I might suggest that we write something small. Try a teeny confession. Try a teeny compliment. Write a tiny conversation. A tiny love letter. The littlest ode to the smallest object you love, something that can fit whole in your hand. So much is intangible right now, so consider something you can actually touch, or taste or take with you in your pocket. Conjure that teeny tiniest thing and live with the minutiae of it for a minute. ✨ Creative Writing Responses

Steve Stern’s Two people hook up in a bar. They go back to one or the other’s apartment and fall into bed. In the morning, having experienced the most intense act of physical intimacy known to mortals, they wake up to realize that they are still complete strangers. Write a dialogue detailing their efforts (successful or not) to make some human connection. 🎯 Creative Writing Responses

Baylee Annis’s Write a letter to someone or something nearby about the first time you met. You could write to your neighbor, to the house you live in, to your favorite bank teller, the path where you walk your dog, to the North Country region, or any other person/place you have affection for. 🏡 Creative Writing Responses

Joseph Bruchac’s prompt It’s your turn to inhale some inspiration. It might be a balsam pillow, an old baseball cap, a box of candy—whatever you have handy that has a strong enough scent to stimulate that olfactory cortex in the temporal lobe of your brain. Breathe in and write on. 🌾 Creative Writing Responses